Resisting Google

In the transcript form On The Media titled "Resisting Google", Drake Bennett of the Boston Globe reports that Google is becoming more and more like Big Brother and argues that Google is unfairly representing information to the public and deciding (through unknown practices) in what information is ranked. However, I believe that this transcript unfairly argues that Google is violating our individual privacy. First of all, the individuals who use Google are freely choosing to use Google as their search engine. While Google may store my searches in order to alter the advertisement I am shown in my side paneling, I am willing to 'give up' that part of my privacy in order to to achieve superior search results. In addition, it honestly seems as if Google as a corporation is fully fighting to defend the privacy rights of their users. Were Google offering to sell my information at any moment to government databases, I would be genuinely concerned. But heck, Google was not even willing to reveal the search trends and popular search terms of those who regularly viewed child pornography over the internet. If Google is willing to toss the child pornographers a bone, then I am willing to strongly believe that they would have little to no interest in my searches for banana bread recipes, Nashville gas prices, and news articles about my younger brother's high school football team. I am thinking that I am safe (and after reviewing my searches today, fairly boring). Bottom line, if you don't like Google's policy of respecting your privacy while tailoring their products to you, then just don't use it. But honestly, I'm going to stick with what works and be content knowing that everyone at Google knows just how lame my search history is.